The product was mostly used durring the boom time between 2004-2006, when USG and the other domestic manufacturers could not keep up with the US demand, or at least that's what they claimed. They all had built new plants and they needed the price of drywall to be at record prices in order to make as much money possible to pay for these new plants. They scaled back production by claiming they needed to do maintenance or upgrade machinery or something justifiable, so that production would be slowed at a time of great demand, and we know what that does to prices. Then the end user (builder) is told that he needs to pay the outrageous prices or be put on severe allocation indefinately. All while customers are sreaming for their homes to be built immediately. Along comes a distributor who says he has plenty of board at a significant cost reduction and the builder says "go ahead". Nobody tells the builder he's getting drywall from the other side of the world. Four-six years later, problems show up and it's not long before the finger is pointed at the foreign product. In between that time, the bottom falls out of the building industry and domestic drywall prices go to the basement. Nobody has brought foreign drywall in to the country for 3 years now. BUT NOW, our legislators decide to halt acceptance of foreign drywall. That's great timing. I hope they didn't spend a lot of time making that decision. Perhaps our legislators should look at the domestic producers and ask why production was cut back at such a critical time? Why was the distributor bringing this product into the country if he knew it was an inferior product? The distributor, L& M Materials is owned by USG. There may be something more to look at here than just closing the barn doors now that the cows are out.

6:08 pm March 31, 2009

Drywall wrote:

Why so quick to point fingers when no conclusion has been reached yet?

9:16 am April 1, 2009

Rick Hollister wrote:

I think it is a little premature to put a price on this case. We have not yet agreed on the analytical testing yet. We have not even determined the remedial scope or protocols to clean this mess up. Good luck getting any money out of the Chinese companies. Then there are the insurance companies some of the contractors and whole sell distributors are not even covered for this so the insurance companies will say. We do not know what long term damage to the health or the property is going to be. Too many questions still unanswered. I have met with some of the top experts in the IAQA field and from around the country in the last month and as an environmental investigator and consultant for 15 years I think we have a long road ahead of us. Beware of guarantee solution to fixing the problem i.e. fogs, foam, sprays hell we don't even know if this stuff has embedded into the wooden substrates in the wall. We have been getting calls from Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana. I would be interested in hearing from people experiencing Chinese Sheetrock problems every case seems to have different details and precursors.
Rick Hollister CEI, CMR, CLI
Environmental Administrators, Inc
Tallahassee, Fl.rhollister@environmentaladministrators.com

11:44 am April 1, 2009

Contaminated wrote:

My family and I, as well my neighbors and their families have been suffering through the nightmare of living in a Chinese drywall, toxic waste dump, hell home, for years. Even as we are finally all moving out, we are still suffering health effects from our contaminated furnishings. These homes are worthless, un-repaired, and will certainly be devalued afterwards. Personal belongings have been destroyed by the corrosive effects and or are contaminated. Health symptoms can become so chronically bad, you have to flee. Some of these chemicals are neuro toxins or highly corrosive acids. The people living in these homes already have all of the conclusive evidence they need to render them toxic waste dumps. They have suffered through chronic appliance and electronics failure, along with deteriorating health problems, from chronic migraines, to severe insomnia and fatigue, mental fog and short term memory loss, to pulmonary edema. How would you like to send your children to bed, to sleep on matresses ,within walls ozzing out chemical gasses that are the equivalent to mustard gas. Even though the levels are low, chronic domestic exposure over years, especially to young children, the elderly, asthmatics, chemical/allergy sensitives, takes a serious toll. We have been the lab rats on this as there has been no such research for domestic exposure on women and children, ect. These homes are hell holes. I dare any of you to buy one at a deep discount and move your family, funriture and expensive electronics into one. I wouldn't wish such a damnation on my worst enemy. My deepest appreciation to the Senators who are taking this seriously, and trying to do something about this biochemical warfare attack on us from China.

12:59 pm April 3, 2009

drywall victim wrote:

Maybe Xu Luoyi should take a visit to South Florida to see the damaged houses first-hand.

8:34 am April 17, 2009

Chinese Drywall wrote:

I have Chinese Drywall, I'm located in South Florida. I created a website to help homeowners and to help get an understanding of how wide spread the problem is. Please visit http://helpchinesedrywall.com.

7:03 am August 6, 2009

Cynthia111 wrote:

The defective Chinese drywall debacle has been making news for months now, with homeowners plagued by sulfur fumes that smell like “rotten eggs” and cause air conditioning coils to corrode. Residents complain of sinus and respiratory ailments, eye and skin irritation, persistent runny or bloody noses, headaches, and asthma. Some situations were so severe that residents had to vacate their homes. In some cases, victims have been harassed by builders into signing unfair, one-side remediation agreements. The issues surrounding defective Chinese drywall are confusing and worrisome. Here is a good blog that has been providing emerging and valuable information on the problems: http://www.chinese-drywall-answers.com

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